Merkel’s grand coalition is moving to raise the amount of money available for the party subsidy by 20M Euro to $153 Euro. Critics and opponents (which include the Greens) say that the proposal is unjustified, even if parties have fewer members and/or electoral turnout is lower, as some allege is the underlying motivation. Lower turnout would cause a reduction in the electoral subsidy since parties are subsidized (annually) according to their performance in the previous election unless, as is my understanding, the ceiling on the total amount of public funding already caps this amount. If true, the argument proposed by the coalition – keeping up with inflation – would seem to be more legitimate. Story in German.